Download Endangered Species: What and Where?

NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION
Endangered Species:
What and Where?
Summary:
Students learn about North American
endangered species through creation of
a species book. Older students will
locate endangered species on a map
and explore their habitat
requirements.
Grade Levels:
K-2; 3-8
Time Estimate:
1-2 class periods
Subjects:
language arts, creative arts,
geography, science
Skills:
description, construction,
comparison, application
Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to:
✓ Define endangered species.
✓ Identify several examples of
endangered species and where
they can be found.
✓ Determine the home range of
several endangered species of
the United States.
✓ List examples of endangered
species found in their state.
✓ Explain habitat requirements of
several endangered species and
determine if their schoolyards
contain any of these
requirements.
Materials:
✓ large U.S. map
✓ art materials (construction
paper, markers, glue, scissors,
pipe cleaners, string, etc.)
✓ U.S. Map Student
Activity Sheet
✓ KWA Species Cards
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Background
In this activity, students will
explore some of the many
endangered and threatened
species in North America. The
following information will be
useful in guiding your students
to investigate National
Wildlife Federation’s Keep the
Wild Alive focus species, and
then to explore local species on
their own.
Extinct species are plants or
animals that once lived on
Earth, but no longer live
anywhere in the world. Examples include the dodo,
passenger pigeon, dinosaurs,
woolly mammoths, and sabertoothed tigers.
Although extinction is a
natural process that has gone
on throughout time, human
activities have greatly accelerated the rate of extinction in
modern times.
An endangered species is a
plant or animal that is in
danger of becoming extinct in
the very near future, because
its numbers are declining
rapidly, or its habitat is being
rapidly destroyed.
Threatened species are plants or
animals which are not yet
endangered but whose population numbers are falling unnatu-
rally quickly. These species face
significant conservation challenges and scientists feel they
must be carefully monitored to
prevent them from becoming
endangered.
Procedure
1. Explain to students that they
will be learning about some
amazing animals that they
may not have heard of before.
Show your students each
picture on the KWA Species
Cards. As you
show each one, ask if the
students have heard of or
seen this animal. Do they
know where it lives? What it
eats? If there are not many,
explain that the reason they
may not have seen the
animal is that there are very
few of these animals today.
These animals are called
“endangered,” meaning they
are unusually rare and could
be in danger of disappearing
altogether. Point out on a
large map of the U.S. where
some of these animals live,
being sure to emphasize
those that are present in
your local region or state.
NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION
300
Population (millions)
290
U.S. Human Population
280
270
260
250
240
230
220
210
200
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
2. In small groups, have
students create and illustrate
their own Species Book.
Divide up the KWA Species
Cards among the groups. For
every species card they have
in their group, ask students
to think of another animal
they know that begins with
the same letter. Have
students draw this animal for
each letter they have represented on a species card,
each on a separate piece of
paper. They can also draw
what it eats, where it lives.
3. Ask students, What is one
thing that your animal has in
common with the species card
illustration you were looking
at (i.e., large, hairy, has big
eyes)? Depending on their
writing level, students
should write that characteristic under their drawing, or
you can write them on the
board.
4. Depending on how much
time is available, you may
want to rotate the group of
Species Cards so that each
group eventually gets all 25,
or you may want to stop at a
smaller number. When all
the student illustrations are
complete, assemble a class
species book, including
copies of the Species Cards
and all the illustrations the
students created, grouped by
letter. These illustrations
may also be used for bulletin
board creation, animal letter
mobiles, or composing an
animal alphabet song!
Modifications for
Older Students
(Grades 3-4)
1. Introduce your students to
the idea that animals and
plants need homes, or habitats, just like people. The area
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NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION
2. Divide the class into small
groups and distribute the U.S.
Map Activity Sheet.
3. Distribute the KWA Species
Cards among the groups (you
may want to divide the cards
ahead of time into geographic
regions). Each group’s task is
to find the range information
on the cards, and shade in the
states where species are found,
noting each species with a
different color or design.
Students should make a key
on their map to correspond to
the color or design used for
each species.
4. Ask the groups to examine
their maps and see which
species are present in their
state or local area.
5. Have groups each pick one
species that is present in their
region and research its habitat
requirements. You will probably want to add several local
species to the list of given
species. To find out more
about these species and other
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U.S. Threatened &
Endangered Species
1200
1000
Species
that an animal needs to find
its food, water, cover, and
places to raise young is called
its habitat, and areas of the
country or world where its
habitat can be found are
called home ranges. Your
students will be noting
species’ home ranges on a
United States map.
800
600
400
200
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
endangered species in your
area, contact your local environmental agency or visit
www.enature.com or the
United States’ Fish and
Wildlife Service’s Division of
Endangered Species’ website,
www.endangered.fws.gov. Use
the search function to look up
endangered species using their
common names, interesting
facts about each listed species,
and lists of endangered species
by state.
6. Once each group knows what
its species’ habitat needs are,
take the class out to the
schoolyard and investigate to
see if those needs can be met
in their schoolyard. As a class,
discuss what they found. If
the habitat elements are present,
where are they? If not, what
could they add to the schoolyard that would provide for
their species? Note that it may
be impossible to provide
everything for every group’s
species.
Modifications for
Older Students
(Grades 5-8)
1. Have students create a bar
graph showing the number of
species in each U.S. region
NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION
(i.e., Northeast, Southeast,
Midwest, West). Do they
notice any patterns?
2. Working from a local map
(for your region or state), have
students research local endangered and threatened species
and create a local endangered
species map to accompany
their U.S. map. This local
map should show ranges and
overlaps, and be labeled with
species names.
3. Have students investigate
what kinds of efforts are
underway locally to protect
endangered species in the
region. What organizations are
working on this issue? How can
students become involved?
Extension
(K-2): Take students out to the
schoolyard to see what animals
and plants they can find. When
you return to the classroom,
have students write down the
name of one animal they saw
and illustrate it for their book or
bulletin board. Add these in a
special section: Animals of Our
Schoolyard. Have students write
a short poem or story about
their animal.
local endangered species, or if
they think it would not be
possible, why.
Assessment
(K-2): Have students present
their art projects and explain
their choice of illustration to the
rest of the class. How did they
choose their animal? Where have
they seen it? Have students share
one habitat fact about their
animal. Write a class poem on
the board, using as many of the
animals as possible.
(3-8): Have each student group
present their map to the rest of
the class, sharing some of the key
facts about each species from the
KWA Cards, and what they
discovered about their local
species. Be sure that students
have included habitat requirements, home range, threats the
species is facing, and why it is
endangered. After the presentations, again emphasize that the
species your students have
learned about are only part of the
total number of species that are
endangered in the United States,
and in the whole world.
(3-8): Ask students to write or
draw up a plan for how they
would add/change their schoolyard to attract several of their
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NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION
WORKSHEET
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